On Jan 8, 2012, at 11:56 AM, Christopher Wilke wrote: > Barrios apparently did use steel on all three top strings, at least at > some time. He placed little bits of rubber close to the bridge on his steel > strings, presumably to damp them a bit and make them sound more gut-like. > The rubber dampers are visible on the top three strings in photos of Barrios. > (See "Six Silver Moonbeams" by Richard Stover.) > > I've often heard that Barrios used steel because of humidity conditions in > South America, but there is apparently no hard evidence for this. Segovia > toured South America extensively in the 1920's and made Montevideo his home > for an extended period beginning in the mid-1930's, all the while using gut. > He spoke very disparagingly of Barrios's use of steel strings as a "wire > fence". > > I suppose the quote from Segovia laments the tone of steel.
Or his lack of respect for all things not Segovia. Quite a few recordings of Barrios playing have been posted to Youtube. They are obviously, pre-high fidelity, but from the ones I've heard I wouldn't guess there was anything unusual about his strings. You can pick up a few of them here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEiX84vb9JU&feature=related > As we know, when a synthetic substitute for gut guitar strings was sought > after WWII, the "gut-like" tone (although I'm sure many here will disagree) > of nylon strings was adopted on the modern classical guitar. So my question > remains - why no outcry or celebration over the adoption of steel on bowed > strings, which played a far more prominent role in mainstream concert life > than the guitar? There does seem to relatively little written contemporary discussion about it. Or perhaps we just haven't looked in the right places. Maybe it was just one of those workaday world things: the winds and percussion are getting louder and the halls are getting bigger, and gut is no longer doing the job. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
